Wing Commander John Beck

12:03AM GMT 17 Jan 2003

Wing Commander John Beck, who has died aged 90, survived long periods of sustained bomber operations over Europe and North Africa before being posted to provide air support for Major-General Orde Wingate's Chindits behind enemy lines in Burma; the experience of meeting the eccentric soldier made him decide to experience for himself jungle operations on the ground.

Beck had arrived in late 1943 at Imphal to see flashes and smoke erupting on the airstrip about half a mile away, followed by noisy crumps. "I thought here I was, an RAF pilot, experiencing what it was like being in the Army against a hardened and disciplined and ruthless enemy. I have to say I really enjoyed it.

"The order of no retreat gave a real buzz. Morale was high, and the RAF were at last achieving air superiority over the Japanese Air Force. It was heaven to be cut off from Group HQ as the paperwork dwindled to practically nothing."

Beck's job of briefing fighter-bomber and transport units from a mud hut while Imphal was being harassed by the Japanese 15th Army left him in no doubt about the precariousness of the position. But even though he was a staff officer, and not an operational commander, Beck made a point of accompanying the troops into action, carrying his revolver and sten gun. This enabled him both to check the effectiveness of RAF forward radio control parties and to call for Hurricane fighter-bombers to soften up bunker complexes.

The bravery and dedication of the soldiers, as well as the battle cries of Indian and Gurkha battle formations attacking the Japanese in their bunkers, left him spellbound, he remembered.

Beck accompanied 63 Brigade as it moved out of Imphal to check the advancing Japanese 33rd division. As he moved forward with his sergeant wireless operator and two mules laden with their bulky equipment, he was astonished by how flexibly he was adapting to jungle warfare.

When the brigade was ordered to take an enemy hilltop bunker, Beck called up a squadron of Hurri-bombers to soften it up; finally, after bitter hand-to-hand fighting, the position fell; two 75mm guns and one disease-ridden surviving Japanese were captured.

Having satisfied himself that the RAF's forward control worked, Beck returned to a severely battered Imphal then went on to a staff college course at Haifa in Palestine.

John Leighton Beck was born on November 15 1912 at Bedford Park, west London. He was educated at Ardingly College, and won The Daily Telegraph sharpshooting competition at Bisley.

He trained as an estate agent with Ferris and Puckridge, then moved on to Debenham, Tewson & Chinnock. It was while updating the Ordnance Survey map at the Isle of Sheppey in Kent that he noticed a target-towing biplane. This aroused an interest in flying and, after paying five shillings for a joyride at an air display, he answered an advertisement offering short service commissions for pilots.

Beck was commissioned in 1936, and the following year joined No 216, a bomber-transport squadron equipped with obsolescent Vickers Valentias at Heliopolis in Egypt.

Towards the end of the year Beck returned to No 99 Squadron, which switched from Handley Page Heyford biplane bombers to Vickers Wellingtons, at Mildenhall, Suffolk. Two days before the outbreak of war Beck was surprised to be ordered with the squadron to Newmarket racecourse to operate from the Rowley Mile gallops.

Operations were planned in the jockeys' weighing-in room, and most personnel slept in the grandstand. One of Beck's earliest trips was to show the flag by passing low over the Arc de Triomphe.

When, in February 1940, he was posted to No 214 Squadron, Beck began a long run of operations against targets in Germany and the barges preparing to invade Britain from French ports. Sometimes he handed over to his second pilot while he occupied the bomb aimer's position in the front turret.

On one sortie, Beck braved a balloon barrage to press home his attack at low level despite his aircraft being damaged by a cable. On another a piece of red-hot shrapnel was embedded in the parachute cushioning his seat. In November 1940 his completion of a strenuous tour of some 30 operations was recognised with a DFC.

Early in the New Year Beck was "rested" in the navigation section at Bomber Command, while being enrolled in the local defence unit, jocularly known as the Southdown Rifles.

After a year he resumed operations as a flight commander with No 159, a newly formed four-engine Liberator squadron which was dispatched to Egypt. Six months of unremitting attacks on enemy-held positions in Libya followed. Beck's Liberator was hit repeatedly; he once returned from a raid on Tobruk to find that a bullet from a German night fighter had passed through the length of the sole of the mid-upper gunner's shoe.

Recalling a Benghazi raid, Beck noted: "We were attacked by three fighters. We got a terrible hammering. I could hear bullets and cannon shells smashing their way down the fuselage, one or two hitting the armour plating behind my back . . . and see pieces of a port engine being shot off."

Then a starboard engine caught fire, and Beck went into a screaming dive which extinguished the blaze in time for him to pull up over the sea.

In November 1942, Beck was ordered with No 159 to India, where he learned that his desert exploits had been recognised with a Bar to his DFC and a mention in dispatches. However, there was no respite as he targeted Japanese fuel dumps, supplies, bridges and railway yards in Burma; the monsoon conditions took a greater toll than operations until the squadron was reduced to three serviceable aircraft.

After completing his second tour of operations Beck was rested as station commander at Poona, where he was asked to assist in the hunt for a rogue leopard which had been terrorising villagers in the hills to the south. When the animal broke cover a police officer opened fire.

"The leopard roared and in three enormous bounds was on top of a policeman," Beck recalled. "As the animal made off into some trees I fired my .303 service rifle. I put two rounds into him."

The leopard was found dead under a bush; the policeman was severely wounded in the throat and shoulder. Afterwards the local headman was full of fervent thanks as the animal had carried off and killed several young women who were drawing water from the village well.

By June 1945, Beck's paper-pushing abilities had been honed at Air Command South-East Asia and the Haifa staff college. He returned home to work at the Air Ministry's operational directorate until 1946.

Following a brief spell in the Civil Aviation ministry's training branch, Beck studied for a year at the London School of Printing before joining the family printing firm, Beck & Inchbold, where he later became chairman and managing director.

He also bought and developed a screen printing company and, after 20 years, amalgamated his business interest with the Westminster Press when, in 1968, he moved to Jersey. Meanwhile, he had retained his association with the RAF, serving in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force until 1959.

In 1973, Beck co-founded Beck and Deane as estate agents on the island, running the business until he finally retired in 1983.

He was sometime president of the Jersey Kart and Motor Club, enjoying golf at the La Moye and membership of the Royal Channel Islands Sailing Club and the St Saviours Bowling Club.

Beck, who died on January 2, married, in 1939, Mary Irene Broad, known as Budge. They had two daughters.